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Thursday, December 15, 2016

1 Semester Down...

Hello everyone! Today I'm expanding a bit outside my bookish comfort zone and talking about something that I've wanted to explore on this blog for a while. I've debated for a while about writing posts that contain my thoughts on various things that aren't book related and finally decided to start with this topic.

I just finished my last final a couple of hours ago and am now waiting for my parents to come get me. Technically I should be packing right now, but I can't a true college student unless I procrastinate every aspect of my life right? So as the title of the post implies, I have finished my first semester of college 200+ miles away from my "comfort" zone. A part of me is in shock that one semester is already done while another part feels like I haven't been home in decades.

Looking back, the past couple of months were both difficult and relatively easy compared to what I hear from my friends. Difficult because I am the absolute worst when it comes to adapting to a new environment but relatively easy because I didn't have a bunch of papers and tests since most of my work was focused on practicing piano. I definitely learned about myself, both socially and academically speaking and it's been both rewarding and discouraging at the same time.

One of the hardest things about the whole college transition had to be meeting new people and developing a routine that worked. Before college, a lot of people talked about this newfound "freedom" they experienced now that their parents weren't hounding after them and therefore they stayed out with friends super late and didn't do their homework until the last minute. Personally, I think I was so anti-social at the start of school that I just hid in my room all the time and there was nothing to do but homework and sleep. I ended up spending a lot of time either in my room or the practice room and I think I'm probably one of the few freshmen on campus that have not stayed up past 1 a.m.

In terms of the easiest thing, it would have to be my classes. I decided to not test out of a couple classes despite taking the AP level in high school and that definitely helped me a lot in terms of academics. In a nutshell, a lot of my foundation classes were more of a review, but that didn't mean I didn't take any difficult classes that made me want to go slightly crazy.

This post might be a bit hard to follow, but I'll try to keep the rest of my thoughts brief. Other than classes and social life (or lack of), college wasn't all that bad once I developed a rhythm for my everyday life. I was that kid who Skyped her parents every single day because how else am I supposed to practice speaking Chinese? I also ended up Skyping Claudia every single day which helped a lot because at the end of the day, I had a familiar face to relax and unwind with. I discovered that I was very selectively introverted and had to push myself in different situations if I wanted to get to know a particular person better.

After the first month I knew some people and even if I didn't hang out with them every second of the day, I had people to talk to. I came to college missing the relationships I had back home and was discouraged when I couldn't find them here, but I realized that I had over four years to build those friendships at home while I just met these people. Some people are lucky enough to find that group that they instantly click with, but for others, it takes a bit more time.

For my first semester, I was able to find a group of friends that I was able to grow with over the last couple of months while still strengthening the relationships back home. I also found that the close "spend every second together" group that I craved at the start of the semester would have been so socially draining for the introvert that I am and have grown to appreciate saying "see you later" to people and retreating back to my room to listen to music or watch some YouTube.

I definitely had a lot of expectations and fears coming to college and at this point, it's just become a routine. I don't need to check all these goals off my list after one semester, but the ones that I did check have helped me get this far.

How about you guys? Anybody a fellow college freshmen or have you been here before? Also, what are your thoughts on these types of posts? I didn't pre-script anything so my thoughts might be a bit jumbled but it was definitely fun just typing some thoughts out. If you like these, let me know and I'll definitely do more!